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Resources sector welcomes new Government

MARK COLVIN: Australia's biggest miner says it hopes the new Government will help restore productivity and competitiveness to the sector.

Throughout the election campaign, mining lobby groups said they wanted a Coalition government committed to repealing the mining tax.

But BHP Billiton has made no reference to that tax in its response to the new Government, as Caitlyn Gribbin reports.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: In the lead-up to Saturday's vote, the resources sector was clear that it wanted a change of government.

Many said the mining tax had been the deal breaker for the industry's relationship with Labor.

Under Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott, miners say they're more confident in their future.

MITCH HOOKE: They have committed to essentially releasing the breaks on economic reform, what Andrew Robb called rebooting the mining sector.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: Mitch Hooke is the chief executive of the Minerals Council of Australia.

He says Tony Abbott's promise to abolish the Minerals Resources Rent Tax is a major win for the industry.

But in a statement released this afternoon, Australia's largest miner, BHP Billiton, didn't mention the tax.

EXCERPT FROM BHP STATEMENT: BHP Billiton welcomes the election of the new Government and looks forward to working with the Prime Minister and his cabinet on the key priority areas that will help restore Australia's productivity and competitiveness.

It is encouraging that the need to lift productivity to maintain living standards featured so prominently in the campaign. While the bulk of the productivity challenge rests with industry, government has a critical role to play in the provision of predictable and stable policy frameworks.

PETER WRIGHT: I'd say they would prefer to go back to the tax arrangements as they were. That said, obviously the mining tax hasn't been the impost on company bottom lines that originally it was thought. It was very well publicised that it has raised a fraction of what it was going to raise.

I think more than anything that they're after legislative certainty. I think, in fairness to the previous government, the Coalition would have been beset by exactly the same problems of constantly having to satisfy the agendas of five, six independents in the Lower House, you know, a very difficult thing to do.

And so the previous prime minister Gillard they were at times really having to do what at times was not perhaps politically pragmatic in the sense of what the broader electorate was after, but it was politically pragmatic in what those six independent Lower House members were after. And those wants and demand weren't necessarily congruent with what was best for the economy and the electorate.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: But the Minerals Council's Mitch Hooke says the industry is hopeful of tax changes.

MITCH HOOKE: They've pledged to remove the carbon tax, which is just, you know, $100 million a week dead weight loss to the economy. They've set up a platform for more flexible workplace arrangements that gives us the direct relationships and flexibility we need to increase productivity. And they've made it pretty clear that the mining tax is going to go too.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: Why should the mining tax be abolished under a Coalition Government when the major companies have paid very little tax anyway?

MITCH HOOKE: Well it becomes a compliance burden. So, if you're about improving the efficiency of your tax system, you don't want a dead weight cost to the economy. And if you're not raising any revenue and you're incurring costs, then it just becomes a dead weight cost to the economy.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: Like BHP Billiton, employer group the Australian Mines and Metals Association is hopeful of a productivity boost under the Coalition Government.

Its executive director is Scott Barklamb.

SCOTT BARKLAMB: The range of workplace relations changes that the Coalition are foreshadowing, that we support; so particularly rebalancing the rights of employers and unions in the bargaining process, dealing with right of entry, restoring a tough cop to the beat in the building and construction industry, each of these things impacts on productivity. As indeed will the intention to require a more formal consideration of productivity at the point at which agreements are approved.

And we think they're all positives. They're all working in the right direction of increasing productivity in this country.